North America shale gas propels Q1 engineering projects for CB&I

25 April 2012 06:01[Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS)--About 75% percent of the construction projects landed by US engineering firm CB&I in the first quarter are located in North America, largely as a result of the advent of shale gas production, company executives said on Tuesday.

CB&I secured $1.7bn (€1.3bn) in first-quarter new contract awards, compared with $1.0bn in the same quarter last year, the company said in its first-quarter earnings announcement.

The first-quarter projects brought the company’s total project backlog to $9.6bn, but CEO Phillip Asherman said CB&I is “beginning to experience a very positive rebalancing in our workload, with over 75% of the projects in the first quarter in North America”.

He noted that North America shale gas production has resulted in new demand for natural gas processing facilities, liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and petrochemical plants.

CB&I was recently awarded a $300m contract to expand ethylene capacity at a Williams olefins plant in Geismar, Louisiana. The plant’s ethylene capacity is expected to be increased by about 600m lb/year (272,000 tonnes/year).

CB&I was also awarded during the first quarter a front-end engineering and design (FEED) study for an liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project at Freeport, Texas, as well as other North American projects.

The company reported a first-quarter net income of $59.5m, compared with $50.5m in the same quarter of 2011.